Left Behind
by Sapsorrow86
Summary: The royals are gone, the town in a panic and magic has been relegated to a group of uncooperative nuns. But Belle didn't just let the love of her life sail away in a suicidal mission to let a couple of bumps in the road keep her from protecting Storybrooke till he returned safely with his grandson in tow.


**AN: Second part will be from Gold's POV once he returns from Neverland.**

**Rating may go up. Way up.**

* * *

The instructions in her hand gave her purpose, kept her from falling apart. She read them thoroughly, recalling from memory those ingredients she had on the shop and those she'd need to somehow acquire. In the end it was only the fairy dust and a magic wielder all she needed that Rumple hadn't left at his pawnshop. She went to the nunnery for help, having interacted with Mother Superior, the Blue Fairy, a few times before. She seemed pleased to see her recovered and genuinely sad and troubled to hear Snow White and her Prince Charming had gone with Emma to look for the kidnapped Henry, though she said nothing of Rumple or the Queen. When she explained the dire situation they were in, however, she was adamant in her refusal to help her cast the spell.

"It's dark magic, and we fairies stay pure of it. I'm sorry, child."

She could be sorry all she wanted for what good it did. Begging and pleading did nothing to change her mind and impotence and fear threatened to choke her. She'd stayed so that she could protect this town and it seemed supremely unfair that the very magical beings she was protecting refused to help her. She'd almost given up and gone back to the shop when she spotted a slight, slim nun approaching her, a sizeable pouch in her hands.

"I'm Nova. I… Dreamy told me about you, and I overheard you talking to Mother Superior. I want to help."

She gestured to the bag.

"I am the keeper of the dust. Most fairies let me take some of it. I believe you know where I could find a wand to put it to good use."

Sheer relief coursed through her, making her shaky. It was suspiciously easy, the spell. Nova, she could tell, wasn't the best fairy ever, but she had a good disposition and Rumple's instructions were detailed enough to make them easy to follow. Soon a wide, transparent cocoon surrounded the town before shimmering out.

"It's in place. I can feel it. It's powered by dark crystals, so it should hold true. And I don't feel particularly evil, so I guess that's good too."

She was nervous, but very friendly, and Belle decided to give her a wand. Nova refused, though, saying that if she gave her one she'd have to give it to the Blue Fairy.

"I don't much like the idea of receiving a gift I would have to give away. But, if I might… Could I come over to borrow them? There are hundreds of harmless little spells that would benefit this town."

Belle agreed readily, feeling like she'd made a friend without quite meaning to. It was more than a bit ironic. After struggling to fit in Storybrooke and finding out most of her new friends couldn't be bothered with her while without her memories she'd found kinship in a dwarf and his fairy lady-friend. They, after all, knew the pain of parting with one's lover. The thought of seeing Nova again lifted her spirits a little, and it seemed to please the fairy too. Perhaps she was tired of remaining put at the convent, so far removed from everyone and everything and Belle was a more acceptable excuse to wonder into town that her would-be true love.

It wasn't long before someone called for a town meeting. Ruby, Granny, Archie and the dwarves, eight now, tried in vain to establish some sort of order. They were in over their heads and, in Belle's opinion, needed one voice instead of eleven to rally the people of the town. Temporary measures were put in place, but it was barely enough to stop outright anarchy. Belle watched from a corner, at the back, wanting to help and wishing to stay out of it at the same time.

A semblance of order was restored, but barely anything else. Storybrooke was a puzzle that no one was bothering to piece together, as if they believed only Snow white and her husband could. With a bit too much time in her hands she leafed through the town records. The library had a copy of them for some reason, probably because it had been used as Regina's storage facility for everything curse-related. Some poking around, merely through Archie, Whale and Grumpy, allowed her to pair cursed personas to true selves. All in all the town had ample supply of talent and experience, but lacked direction. It was an interesting exercise, to try and see what positions needed filling and who could be the best person for the job.

It kept her mind off of Rumple, so she let her little project consume her. It also allowed her to get to know the rest of the town, something she should've done long ago. She had missed a lot of time, wither in prison or trapped inside her head and she was determined to make up for it. She also did a thorough inventory of the pawnshop, her familiarity with the objects allowing her to think up ways in which they could be useful. Belle wouldn't forget the threat that lay outside and knew that the smart thing would be to prepare for the worst. The barrier kept them safe, but she'd heard that those who were hunting magic knew how to neutralize it, so it was only a matter of time before trouble found Storybrooke again.

It was Nova who told Grumpy of Belle's idea for sorting the town out, and he seemed to take to it with enthusiasm covered by gruffness. Privately she though he might be feeling guilty for neglecting her before, even though he'd had his own amnesiac comrade to worry about, but he was tenacious enough to convince her to present her idea to the rest of the members of Snow White's round table. The surprise on their faces as they saw it was a feasible, organized solution stung a little but she didn't let it show. It was brought up at the next town meeting and Belle reluctantly stepped forward to present her plan. The citizens, relieved at seeing a clear course of action set, voted in favour almost unanimously, and talks begun with those who she had selected as key elements of her plan. The dwarves and Red formed the patrol area, making sure that no unwitting person entered unseen. They also monitored the cloaking spell and the behaviour of magic. They still took their turns mining and farming. The bean sprout on Regina's office wouldn't bear fruit for a long time, but it still needed tending. With the town invisible supplies no longer flowed in too, so farming was a necessity.

Jefferson, surprisingly, was another key player. Unwilling to let his Grace go without he'd volunteered to go over the town line. Like Regina his memories hadn't been affected by the curse, per her Majesty's twisted wish, and so he'd theorized he could cross without a problem and find his way back by keeping a medallion around his neck that would always guide him to Grace. Turned out he was both mad and right, fortunately, and so he became the town supplier. Good King Midas, sadly afflicted again by his gift-turned-curse, provided the Hatter with enough gold to trade for anything they might need, but kept to black market deals and such to avoid detection. He loved his newfound job, mostly because his little Grace was beaming with pride.

Whale kept the Hospital afloat and the nuns the school. Fairy dust was in short supply so they had little to no powers. As much as Belle disliked magic she knew that they'd need such a weapon to fight if, or when, whatever organization Tamara and Greg had been part of came calling. Having no solution for such a problem Belle had tried hard to find the perfect sheriff and judge for the town. Order was paramount if Storybrooke was ever to be put back together and strengthened and so she'd decided to give the job to the man with most experience, which turned out to be the leader of King Midas's troupes and former gym teacher Frederick Knight. She was glad when he accepted the job with no reservations. She didn't know him but he appeared affable and open but stern and commanding too. A good combination for sheriff, she'd wager.

His true love, by some coincidence, had caught her attention. Princess Abigail/Kathryn Nolan had an air of authority about her tempered by a sort of sharp charm that made her likeable while still being respected. Coupled with her knowledge of both old-land and Storybrooke law she was perfect as a judge, fair but strict and capable of putting her feelings aside if need be. At the meeting she seemed happy to accept the position, glancing at Belle with a little frown of puzzlement and a bit of wariness, but also an open and warm expression. Later, once everything had been laid out and people had gone home he caught her just as she was about to retreat back to the library. She seemed honestly curious about the woman who had proposed her for an important position without meeting her, and didn't really seem to hold her status as "Dark One's mistress" against her. A sort of strange, tentative friendship began to form. It was refreshing meeting new people, particularly people who'd never met Rumple before. And Abigail was just and honourable without it meaning she saw the world in black and white.

She had been ready to retreat back to her library and dedicate herself to investigating the organization hell bent on destroying magic when she found out she'd won the election for Mayor. An unplanned election for which she hadn't run. When Grumpy told her she thought he was making some inexplicable joke, but it turned out to be true. Apparently the whole election had been spontaneous, the motion coming up on the last town meeting, which she'd missed in favour of curling up on Rumple's bed dressed in one of his shirts and crying her eyes out. She did that at least once a week. It seemed to help keep her spirits up the rest of the time.

When asked about how her name came up at all in the impromptu election it was Archie who answered.

"Well, you did save the town. And as much as people don't understand your… relationship with Gold, they know it's true love, and that you gave it up to cast the shield that keeps Storybrooke invisible."

It was a partial truth. The reasons why she'd let Rumple go alone were varied and complex, but the spell had been his trump card, his way of tipping the scales in favour of her staying put, to do the right thing.

"And you do kind of have a history of town-saving. Self-sacrifice apparently gets you lots of votes."

Grumpy shrugged, trying to play it as if he didn't care whether she took the job or not. The responsibility was daunting, she knew, but her own words came to haunt her. Do the brave thing.

She had experience, she couldn't deny it. She'd spent most of her teenage years managing the survival of a town besieged by ogres, where supplies were low and despair ran high. But she felt like too much of an outsider in town to accept such a position.

Rumours of King George, Charming's not-father who had murdered the mechanic in order to frame Ruby, rallying people to his side decided her. As much as she didn't feel comfortable or happy about accepting the position she'd been offered she knew that a power vacuum was more dangerous the more it lasted. There was no big town event to announce her decision, nor any outward gesture. One day Belle simply strolled into the mayor's office and, after shuddering a bit at the decor, began her work. Most of it concentrated at first on making sure her plan was efficiently implemented, smoothing out the rough edges. She gave Anton, the giant-turned-unexpected-dwarf, the bean plant she'd found in a glass case in Regina's office. Apparently it wouldn't bear new fruit in a long time, but it would eventually grow beans again. For security reasons it was decided the plant would stay where it was, Anton carefully transplanting it into a bigger pot filled with rich soil. Belle often found herself pausing from her work to stare at it wistfully, imagining the potential within it.

Once the internal situation was somewhat controlled and order had been restored Belle poured most of her energy towards the mystery of Tamara and Greg. There was little to go on, but Abigail taught her about computers and the Internet and trial and error allowed her to uncover a bit about Baelfire's former fiancé, mostly about her travels all over the world. She seemed to be some sort of heiress with a wild past that had "found" herself on her travels and had come back to the States a new person. Clearly she'd been… recruited by whatever organization she worked for while abroad. Perhaps she had had a bad experience with magic, or had been looking for purpose or a sense of worth.

She had interests in various companies, a lot of them dealing with technology. Those, she knew, where the ones to look out for. Among her possessions, what she had left behind, they'd found several tasers, machines capable of shooting current to incapacitate a person. A simple experiment had revealed it could nullify and overpower magic as well. Clearly those weapons had cost time and money.

She refused to stop tending to the Library, though she'd had to appoint someone else as Librarian. She'd chosen Nova, arguing politely with Mother Superior that the fairies needed to be more involved in town affairs and that she needed Nova near to have someone advise her in matters of magic. It was mostly an excuse, really, to allow the fairy to mingle with people, mainly grouchy dwarves with hidden hearts of gold. Nova, or Astrid since she went by both names, took to her new position quite well, working enthusiastically.

It was while she was busy cataloguing books that the nun first heard the noises. Awful, mournful screeches, faded, as if coming from far away. It was only when Belle heard it too, on one of her visits, that the fairy realized she wasn't imagining things. It sounded like someone was in some sort of excruciating pain and pretending not to hear anything wasn't really an alternative.

"It's coming from below." Belle finally reasoned, taking a deep breath. Do the brave thing… always the brave thing. "I'll go check. Sounds like someone needs help. If something happens to me and I'm not back in twenty minutes you go get help. Get Ruby, she'll be able to track me down. Or anyone."

The brunette didn't know what to expect. She knew Regina had been harbouring someone beneath the library, an old friend trapped in the form of a monster, a dragon, that Emma Swan had had to slay in an attempt to save her son, but no one else was reported to be there. What she did find was, if anything, worse than a dragon. It was a person, if it could be called that. Bone thin and tattered, more wraith than living creature, it emitted the most horrible noises she'd ever heard and trashed on the floor as if in constant pain. The creature was dark, she could tell by the bits of magic clinging to it, but wasn't a threat. When she approached it, carefully, it's sightless eyes seemed to focus on her.

"H-h-h-he-e-e-e-l-p m-m-m-me…"

The words were little more than a hiss but Belle understood them instantly. Letting her compassion overcome her revulsion she scooped up as much of the creature as she could, dragging it into the elevator and upward to the library. The moment Nova saw it she gasped and recoiled, almost fleeing.

"That's… that's a dark fairy."

"She needs help, Nova. Magical help. Go call Mother Superior."

There was little she could do for the creature. Belle knew every potion and bit of magic in Rumple's shop, and nothing there would help. It seemed, however, that Mother Superior was equally useless. She contemplated the creature with a mixture of pity and contempt and, dare she say it, a hint of triumph.

"She's beyond our powers. Her magic is dark, and so is the spell that would save her. I'm sorry to say no fairy will ever aid you where she is concerned, Madam Mayor. The price would be too high, in any case."

Something in Blue's tone of voice irked Belle, but as she watched some of the nuns she'd brought with her she knew her words to be true: no fairy saw the creature as worth saving. For days it languished in the back room of the library, placed on a cot. Nova tended to her, her initial fear and repulse giving way to compassion and pity till the fairy seemed constantly about to cry. On the seventh day she quietly asked Belle to borrow one of Rumple's wands.

"I'm going to do it."

Belle phoned Grumpy to let him know what was going on before following Nova to the library. She sprinkled the last bit of fairy dust in her possession on the creature and waved the wand about in complex patterns. The initial blue smoke turned slowly purple and then violet, first engulfing Nova, flaring around her back and then weaving around to surround the figure in the bed, Nova watching in distress as it did so. Finally, when the room cleared, Belle saw that instead of a husk on the bed there was a woman with long blond hair and tattered lilac robes. She seemed unconscious and haggard, but alive and on the mend. Nova, on the other hand, looked about ready to drop dead.

"Came here as fast as I could."

Grumpy barely nodded towards Belle before cautiously taking the tiny fairy in his arms, managing to get her to sit down before she broke down in sobs. It took about half an hour for her to reveal that she couldn't feel her wings anymore. Though invisible in Storybrooke her wings had always been there, but the dark magic had ripped them off. She was tainted now, and it would never wash away. She was, for all intents and purposes, a dark fairy too.

"I can never go back to the other fairies. They'll shun me now… I'm all alone."

Grumpy held her for what seemed like hours, telling her she was being silly, that of course she had people, people like him or Belle.

"Hell, I come with other seven people attached. Your problem might very well be that you have too many people, sister."

The laugh that came out of Nova seemed a bit forced, and a bit hysterical, but also a tiny bit genuine. Later on Grumpy helped her move to the apartment above the library, giving her privacy as she hugged the fairies who would approach her goodbye. Most kept their distance, eyeing their sister as if she was a stranger.

With Nova firmly moved into the library it was easy to care for the unconscious woman, Belle helping out since she knew the former nun was still skittish around the dark magician. It took three days for her to wake up, and when she did she was not exactly pleasant. She attempted to curse them both several times before it sunk in that she had next to no energy to spare. The second time she woke, fortunately, she seemed willing to have some sort of civilized interaction. She could barely speak but didn't reject food or care, and little by little Nova lost her skittishness and the dark fairy her murderous glare.

When she finally introduced herself as Maleficent, however, the little fairy almost reverted back to her jittery state. Belle recalled hearing the name once or twice, perhaps, but tried not to recall why. As far as she was concerned in Storybrooke enough people who didn't deserve it had gotten second chances. Now Maleficent was the only magic user who did not require fairy dust and could use dark magic, except for Nova. That made her worth getting to know.

She enquired, as gently as she could, as to her story, unsurprised to hear Regina was behind decades of imprisonment and loneliness. They bonded, strangely enough, over it. No one, apart from Rumple, had even wondered how being locked up for years had affected Belle. Maleficent- call me Mal, dear, lets dispense with the formalities- tried to seem detached about the whole affair but it was clear there was a lot of betrayal and resentment there. She was a prickly sort of person, but she had a dry sense of humour than in a way reminded Belle of Rumple. There was also a sort of resignation about her that assured the librarian-turned-mayor that Maleficent's days raising havoc were behind her. She looked… tired.

With her strength her magic slowly came back, which was on itself a blessing. Maleficent, thankfully, seemed to possess some code of ethics, however twisted, and, as she grudgingly admitted, she owed both Belle and Nova for their help. She also seemed to feel empathy, in a way, for the newly-wingless fairy.

"I've been there, child. It feels… like your soul has been ripped away from your body. For years and years I still felt my wings, even if they weren't there. Eventually I replaced them with scales and ligaments, but it was never the same."

In the end no one helped Nova get over the initial shock of being wingless like Maleficent. Grumpy, from day one, voiced his many doubts and concerns regarding the dark fairy, but grudgingly allowed the older woman to coach the younger fairy to reconnect with magic as long as he got to supervise.

Soon enough Maleficent was introduced to the people of Storybrooke, Belle taking personal responsibility for her. She seemed to take to the new world, and the new fashions, very well and, though she did harbour some very blatant contempt for most people around her, she was civil enough. Belle wagered that after thirty years of solitude the magician was happy to be among others.

It was Mal the one that restored the burned-out documents Tamara and Greg had left in their wake- "No problems, darling. Fire is my specialty, you could say.". With new information a clearer picture of what they faced outside begun to form in Belle's mind, aided by Hopper, Whale and Mal herself. The amount of information people outside possessed about Storybrooke, magic and their cursed selves was frightening, particularly what they knew about nullifying magic. Some of the inventions mentioned in the files, according to Whale, were nothing more than high-tech torturing devices. Others seemed powerful enough to negate large amounts of magic. The power of the barrier was in question, and Maleficent was placed in charge of monitoring and reinforcing it at all times. It gained her a place in Storybrooke like nothing else had, and smoothed out the lingering resentment amongst many of the fairies, though Blue still adamantly went out of her way to avoid Mal. The dark fairy loved nothing more than to try to get a rise out of Mother Superior, loudly calling out her name on the street and constantly demanding they get together for drinks some time and calling her a boring ninny when she refused.

"You know what you need, Blue dear? To get laid. It'd do you wonders."

Belle had to admit she'd laughed like she hadn't since Rumple had boarded the Jolly Roger.

* * *

It was Mal the one to break the biggest news of her life. It happened at Granny's, while Belle debated over getting a mocha or a cup of tea.

"Get the tea, darling, coffee is bad for the baby, or so I've read in _Fit Pregnancy_. I saved it for you, don't worry."

It took an embarrassing amount of time for Belle to react, looking for the nearest chair and sitting down slowly.

"Come again?"

"You're pregnant, hon. A bit over two months along, it's a miracle you haven't noticed. Magical pregnancies are considerably more complicated than normal ones."

Not content with merely sitting down Belle put her head between her legs, willing the world not to spin around her. Her mind focused on the task of calculating to see if it was possible. And of course it was. Right after she'd recovered her memories she'd all but jumped Rumplestiltskin, eager to bring him comfort and seek it out in his arms. It had been quite the encounter, overshadowed later by the finality of his departure. She'd completely forgotten about the possibility of conception, which seemed to have been a mistake.

"Oh, come now, darling, it's not so bad as that. Babes are a good thing, even though they break havoc with one's wardrobe."

Mal patted her on the back daintily, the gesture awkward but incredibly sweet because of it. The blonde waited patiently for her to get over the initial shock, herding her towards the hospital and staying by her while Whale ran over the necessary tests. The dark fairy disliked the facility, the stale environment getting to her, but knew Belle still was skittish around it. So many bad things had happened to her in the hospital it was a wonder she managed to enter it at all. She got pre-natal vitamins for her trouble as well as general instructions of what to do and what not to do.

Maleficent proved a fountain of information regarding pregnancy, especially its magical aspect. The idea of a Dark One having a child had never crossed anyone's mind ever, so the fairy could only speculate and gently probe at the unborn wee one. A little girl, apparently, completely human and with a tiny little spark of magic inside.

"How big that spark will get I'm not sure, I can only sense potential right now. And she's got Rumple's nose, I'm sorry to say."

For the longest time she kept the baby a secret, hers and Mal's and Nova's. She was deadly afraid that somehow she'd lose her like she'd lost everyone else, dreams of Regina plunging one manicured hand into her stomach and squeezing the life out of her little girl tormenting her. She knew the Evil Queen was worlds away, busy trying to save her own child, but those dreams haunted her all the same. Rumple's house felt too big and too empty but she refused to bother others with her problems. Everyone was rallying together to pull through, it didn't seem fair to burden anyone with her problems.

When someone knocked on the front door on an early Saturday morning she thought it might be Maleficent trying to "do the friendly thing" and check up on her. The blonde still had trouble knowing how to behave in a way that was not… villainous, so she sometimes overdid the friendly gestures. Nova encouraged her a little too much, it seemed.

It wasn't Mal, however. It was a towering hulk of a man, dressed in black and looking ever-so-unfriendly. Belle made sure to stay firmly inside the house, suddenly hyper aware of the many protection spells that surrounded the structure. The man took his sunglasses off, revealing startlingly-gentle eyes.

"Lady Belle? My name is… Dove. You might not remember me but I served you once upon a time, and in this land I am Mr Gold's employee."

What followed, once Belle decided to let him through the threshold, was an unbelievable story of a bird-turned-man that had spent twenty-eight years as hired-muscle for Mr Gold, remembering once the curse broke his previous life as a carrier pigeon from the village of Lord Maurice who'd become a bridge between a man and his daughter and, later, a strange companion to a dark wizard who thought he'd lost his true love (and who seemed to know he liked sunflower seeds and hated canary grass. It was the strangest story Belle had ever heard and if she hadn't met Billy the former-mouse she might have thought Dove was pulling her leg.

It seemed that Dove, still under contract to Gold, felt it was his duty to somehow offer his services to Belle.

"Mr Gold hired me to take care of his more prized possessions, among other things. I am still getting paid, I should do the work. Specially with the baby."

It also seemed that Dove was quite caught up with her medical records, having thought it prudent to keep an eye out for her from a distance. A part of her felt appalled and affronted, but it was hard to try and lecture a former-bird about privacy violation. She tried to turn his offer down, she really did, but he was adamant that he should take care of her till the master returned, if he ever did. He reasoned that with her work as mayor and her investigation into whatever agency was hunting magic down she was bound to be too busy to keep up with dusting, grocery-shopping, tending the pawn-shop and other more mundane tasks. She was also supposed to be resting and had no secretary or assistant to organize her day or manage her appointments. The way he put it it was a miracle Belle hadn't collapsed from stress and exhaustion before.

He was persistent enough that Belle thought it easier to agree to let him take care of the house and the pawnshop than to argue with him. Dove proved to be, surprisingly, a very good employee, with a work ethic to envy and amazing organisational skills. He kept the house in pristine condition, stocked the pantry and the fridge, looked after the pawnshop, including the magical items and generally helped Belle with odd jobs. He was a silent man, incredibly gentle under a stony facade that served him well when collecting the rent. He also volunteered at the library, lugging books about while Nova instructed as to where they should be placed and accepted a beer or two with the dwarves when it was offered. He let it be known, in that silent, surreptitious way he had, that he was Mayor Belle's protector, as per the Dark One's orders, and that if Lady Belle broke a nail he'd make sure Storybrooke burned. People got the message loud and clear and even though Belle didn't approve she didn't fight it either. Dove was a mean housekeeper, after all.

* * *

She was four months along, the wee one but a bump on her otherwise smooth profile, when a portal opened close to Granny's Diner and a man jumped almost straight into Granny's specials sign. Though battered and in need of a shave it was easy to recognize Neal Cassidy, aka Baelfire. He caused quite a commotion, disoriented and demanding to see Emma Swan and his son to whoever approached him. Knight saw it prudent to haul him to the hospital, where a nonplussed Whale declared him in perfect health, though in need of a bath.

"No bullet hole. Magic, I suppose." He muttered, rather miffed.

It was unclear what to do with him. Frederick felt he was ill-equipped to tell the man the love of his life and his son were on Neverland, unlikely to return. He was put on a hospital room, muttering something about a magical quarantine to stall till finally Belle was called and informed of everything. The sheer relief at the news that Bae was alive took her by surprise. He was Rumple's son, yes, but she had never met him, much less formed an emotional attachment to him. But as much as a stranger as the man was he was also her daughter's brother. Her baby had someone else in this world other than her and that was enough to make Bae Belle's favourite person in Storybrooke.

It was an awkward, stilted meeting at first. Belle, in her pointed black stilettos, stylish wool trousers and off-white silk blouse was a far cry from the dishevelled Lacey, but it was still hard to explain to the increasingly-frustrated man that the person he had met months ago wasn't her. It was even harder to inform him that his love and his father were in Neverland, trying to rescue his son who had been taken by his former fiancée and her secret lover.

It took another meeting to get to who she was, Belle deciding to give Neal time to process things. He was calmer, then, eager to know of the threat to the town and the circumstances surrounding Emma and his father's travel to Neverland. She tried to remain hopeful as she answered his questions, but Rumple's revelation that he didn't expect to come back was always on the forefront of her mind. She offered him Snow's empty apartment to live while they waited and he took it gratefully.

It was on their third meeting that he asked about her specifically, and her story spilled out at once. It took many cups of tea to fit it all, and by the end of it Bae seemed torn between tears and shock.

"That's… that's some tough life right there. I remember ogres… not a pretty sight. And thirty years imprisoned. That's… that's something."

She tried to shrug it off.

"And… Your true love is my papa? You… you can break his curse? For real?"

He seemed to look at her in awe at the revelation, like she was what he'd been looking for for quite some time. In a way, Belle reasoned, she was. From then on he seemed much more interested in her, more than willing to walk with her around town so she could fill him in on the latest news. He was keen to hear about the research being done on the secret organization that had taken his son, and Belle was more than happy to accept his help and input. After all he'd lived in this world for quite a while and could, much like Jefferson, venture in and out. At the end of their meeting she, a bit reluctantly, revealed she was pregnant.

"Your… your father doesn't know. It happened on the day he left. It's a girl, really tiny at the moment and… Well, I know it's strange, and I'm not asking anything from you but I thought you should know you're going to have a sister soon."

The lack of reaction was to be expected, but it still stung Belle a little bit. Baelfire had a lot to process, and a lot to cope with, it was only natural he didn't feel immediately and irrevocably attached to an unborn sister more than thirty years younger than him. He didn't bring up the subject again and Belle was convinced he had decided to pretend the baby didn't exist when she woke up one day to her stomach cramping horribly. In a panic she called Maleficent, but it was Dove who found her, curled up in bed and unable to move, when he'd let himself into the house to clean only to realize her keys were still by the little table in the hall. He rushed her to the hospital, cradling her like a new-born baby and driving like a controlled maniac, only to discover there was little Dr Whale could do. Whatever was happening was not… natural.

"Gods, this place is depressing. Who brought you to this mausoleum?"

Dove seemed to materialize out of nowhere, tall and stony-faced. Belle saw Maleficent's eyes run up and down his frame, a predatory glint accompanying a slow, appreciative smile.

"Hello, there."

Belle was all for love and connection but she ached and the fear of her tiny daughter being in pain or danger overshadowed everything else.

"Mal, please. Please help her."

The dark fairy was quick and thorough, deeming the incident the baby's first burst of magic, raw and uncontrolled. A simple potion taken with meals would help stabilize the child's magic, ensuring Belle's own magic-less body would strengthen enough to carry the pregnancy through. It was an almost instant solution, the mauve liquid relaxing her muscles and vanishing the pain.

She was about to settle as Maleficent tossed her blond hair over her shoulder and tried to ruffle Dove's feathers when Baelfire burst into the room, looking a bit agitated.

"She alright? She's alright, isn't she?"

He looked hastily-dressed and out of breath, but smiled brilliantly when he saw Belle was still very pregnant and no one was panicking. Whale, however, was looking more than quite miffed, either at his inability to solve the problem or the outrageous flirting not involving him going on in the room. Belle wasn't quite sure what offended him most. She patted her baby bump softly.

"Yeah, just a bit of a mishap. I'm sorry I didn't think to call, I didn't think someone would tell you."

_'Or that you'd care.'_

The unspoken thought hung in the air, no one daring to give it voice. Baelfire, at least, relaxed, running a hand through his hair and smiling in that "I'm so nervous I don't know what to do with myself" way that he had gotten from his father. Belle made no comment when he stepped further into the room, hovering nervously around her in a startlingly-familiar way.

"You sure you're okay? I mean, there's no need to take chances here. And you should probably just rest. Lots of rest. I… I'll keep you company. Got nothing better to do, just waiting around, you know."

Waiting around like a useless fool while the love of his life struggled to save their son. Belle could identify with that, with the feeling of having been left behind to wait endlessly while accomplishing little.

"How about we go to City Hall instead? I can relax in a couch in the office and you can study the documents about the anti-magic organization and see if we can uncover more of the threat. Better to be prepared, for when they come back."

It was staggeringly easy to bond after that. Baelfire was a sort of lost soul, looking for a purpose. His old life seemed not to matter to him anymore, not his job or his friends or his flat in New York. He talked a lot of about Emma and Henry, particularly to her, and seemed really interested in his "little sister". His father was a rather touchy topic, but Belle tried to bring him out in conversation, wishing for Bae, as he had allowed her to call him, to know the man she did, the one who was still more gentle spinner than bitter imp. And it was nice to have someone other than Maleficent to sit with her during an ultrasound or discuss baby-proofing the house.

But he needed more than just a little sister and some bonding with his sort-of stepmother. Bae needed to feel useful, to help. And, since he had lived for years in the real world, he was deemed the most appropriate person to take over the research into the society that sought to eradicate magic from the land. Belle couldn't give it up completely, but with a baby on the way and her duties as a mayor she hadn't made as much progress as she'd hoped. Baelfire could dedicate all of his time to the investigation and it helped make him feel like he too was fighting for Henry and his home.

"I don't want him to have to worry about nothing when he comes back," he often told Belle. "After all Emma's got magic and so does papa, and he'd hate to lose them. Oh, and his auntie as well."

He proved to be tireless in his desire to unravel the plot behind the kidnapping of his son and the attacks on magic. For a long time it seemed to consume him, the need to uncover everything he could about the secret organization that had robbed him of his family and almost killed him. Funnily enough he didn't seem to care much about the fact that he'd been tricked into a relationship with one. He didn't talk about Tamara a lot, and when he did it was almost always to wonder how he'd been so careless as to expose his family to her when he never really knew her.

His obsession with The Organization, as they'd chosen to call it, bordered on the unhealthy but, thankfully, Belle knew exactly how to deal with such a familiar trait. She employed her little girl for such a purpose, shamelessly lying about feeling a little "unwell" so Bae would shift his focus to his little sister. Once Belle managed to divert his attention away from his research it was easy enough to fuss over him in a covert, roundabout way, getting him to do things like shower, eat and sleep while making it look like it was always his idea.

"Don't you think I don't notice the Jedi mind tricks you're pulling on me," he told her once, narrowing his eyes as they ate dinner. He'd make it a habit to have dinner with her at least twice a week. For all that Belle was surrounded by people most of the day she looked very lonely at times.

"I've no idea what you mean. And kindly stop toying with your vegetables."

"Sorry, mom."

It started as a joke, him calling her "mom", saying that he might as well get her used to being one. He also seemed to love how it freaked people out, and in his impish smile Belle could see his father's sense of humour, somewhat dark but charming as well. After a while it became a habit that neither was willing to let go of. It felt nice, to be a family, even if it was just a patched-up, tentative family secured together by the presence of an unborn little girl.

Contrary to what she might have feared Rose, as she'd decided to call her, was beloved by many even inside the womb, her genes mattering little to most of the people in town. Some, of course, sought to create problems at first, but Granny and her crossbow took care of most of them, and the rest were left for Mal to subtly torture with promises of burning pain and scattered ashes.

She'd declared herself fairy godmother without really asking for anyone's permission. One day she simply began calling Rosie her goddaughter and no one had thought to contradict her, though the look in Blue's face when Maleficent talked about her fairy godmother duties near her was quite… expressive. Belle hadn't thought someone's eyes could open that wide. As for Belle herself, she couldn't find it in herself to be too worried about the prospect of a dark fairy being her daughter's godmother. After all little Rose was magical and would need guidance and protection. Mother Superior was out of the question as a tutor and Nova, as sweet as she was, was a beginner in a lot of aspects.

Belle, however, rather hoped it'd be her daughter's father the one to help her with her magic. Between her pregnancy, Bae and the issues of the town she didn't have much time for herself, but she spent quite a bit of it at the docks, sitting on a bench with a good book and a soft fleece blanket to protect her growing belly. Every now and then she'd look up at the horizon, stamping down the flare of hope that always arose and the disappointment that almost immediately followed. He'd be back, she was sure of it.

The "when" was what eluded her.


End file.
